First mainlander to get Ph.D. in Taiwan set to return home

TAIPEI -- Fujian province native Liu Jiliang was among the first batch of Chinese students to come to Taiwan to study in 2011 and has now become the first among them to earn a doctoral degree from a Taiwanese university.

Liu received a Ph.D. from National Sun Yat-sen University's Institute of China and Asia Pacific Studies after passing an oral examination on his thesis on Chinese nongovernmental organizations, the university said in a campus news report released Monday.

He was the first student in the institute to obtain his doctoral degree in only three years, the school said, and Liu will return home this week after securing a job back in China.

Institute director Samuel Ku praised Liu as being “conscientious, proactive and well organized.”

Liu completed the required coursework for the institute's doctoral program in his first year here, and earned his doctoral candidacy in the second year, he said.

The 30 year-old holds a master's degree from Peking University and a bachelor's degree from Beijing Normal University.

One of the first students from mainland China, Liu Chi-liang (劉積亮), left, poses with the head of the National Sun Yat-sen University's Institute of China and Asia-Pacific Studies on his graduation day in Kaohsiung, yesterday. Liu became the first student ever to finish his Ph.D. in three years at the National Sun Yat-sen University's Institute of China and Asia-Pacific Studies. (CNA)